Tour of Italy Pasta Salad (High in Protein & Gluten-Free!)

With picnic season coming up, I thought I'd share my favorite recipe for pasta salad: an easy dish to share with groups, and a wonderful staple to have on hand in the fridge during hot summer nights when you don't want to heat up the house to make dinner.

There's something wonderfully summery about pasta salad. Since I gave up eating gluten over two years ago, I've been happy to discover quinoa pasta, so that I don't have to miss out on my favorite pasta salad this time of year. Quinoa pasta has great texture and flavor, it’s not finicky like rice pasta, and it’s high in protein, to boot!

I must admit that sadly, I’ve never been to Italy, but I just love the classic flavors and elegant simplicity of Italian food. There’s a richness and a decadence present in a simple Margharita pizza that really appeals to me, and the elements of this pasta salad reflect those classic flavors. My sister is headed (back) to Italy in a few weeks, and I'm looking forward to living vicariously through her photos and stories when she gets back.

This is my most favorite pasta salad recipe, and I hope you’ll enjoy making and sharing it with people you love this summer!

Friday Favorites: The Purple Airplane

Welcome to Friday favorites: a weekly linky for your favorite blog posts from the week co-hosted by Maya of Musings of a Marfan Mom and me!

Visit either here at Anktangle or over at Musings of a Marfan Mom every week on Friday to link up your favorite post from the week, and Maya and I will read and comment on them. Don't forget to share the love by reading and commenting on a few of the other favorites in the list after you link up yours!

In addition to the linky, I'm taking this opportunity each week to write a little bit about a my favorite moments from the past week. I hope you'll feel inspired to leave a comment telling me about your favorite thing(s) that happened this week, too!

These are a few of my favorite things:

Daniel and I had a lovely trip to the zoo with my friend Katie and her three adorable kiddos last Friday. It was a little challenging for Daniel, but we made it through in one piece, and he really got a kick out of seeing the animals at the zoo—particularly the giraffes. I enjoyed spending time with another adult...even if we did have to stop every few feet to attend to the needs of all our little zoo-mates.

I felt like a babywearing rock star wearing Daniel on my back for about half of the time. Near the end of our trip, Katie put baby James on her chest in a wrap and her toddler (Ellie) on her back in a SSC, and I was totally amazed. The best moment was when we got on the train like that: me with Daniel on my back, her tandem wearing two kiddos, and one of us holding her older daughter Lina's hand... and people moved out of their seats to give us a place to sit down. We ended up having six people taking up only two seats on the train—with both older kids on me (Lina in my lap and Daniel on my back) and both younger kids on her: the ultimate in efficient travel!

My rose bushes are starting to bloom. I got almost all of my roses through Freecycle, and here in the city of roses, I'm extra proud to have some beautiful blooms in my front yard this year. One of the bushes is so large that part of it got too heavy and fell over last weekend, so I cut off as many of the flowers as I could and Jaymz helped me arrange them in a vase (they were a little tricky because most of them were growing crooked from being at a strange angle). I cut my hand open on one of the thorns, but it was totally worth it for getting to enjoy the amazing smell and beauty of all those roses inside our house.

Jaymz and I enjoyed a rare date night last weekend, too!

We were having a rough weekend, so it was lovely to have a break to reconnect and relax a bit. We went to a restaurant we'd never tried before, and the serving style (small plates served family-style) and food was right up our alley. I'd definitely like to go back there the next time we have a night out! I'm thankful to Arwyn for gifting us with the childcare for the evening, and to Isaiah for providing it. When we got home, Isaiah was wearing Daniel and rocking in the hammock: indicative of Daniel's level of coping for the evening. I feel so blessed to have both Arwyn and Isaiah in our village!

Daniel was being (extra) sweet to me one day this week when I was upset about something. He really embraces the role of caregiver when one of us is in need of it (and we do our best to honor that without letting him take on too much). This time, Daniel knew Momma was upset, and for whatever reason he got it in his mind that the thing that was sure to make me feel better was a purple airplane. He informed me that he was going to make a purple airplane to help me feel better, and then he and Jaymz headed downstairs to eat dinner. When I went down to visit them later, Daniel was ready to present me with their creation: an honest-to-goodness purple airplane!

And don't you know it, it really did make me feel all better.



What was one of your favorite moments from the week?

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Link up your favorite blog posts from the week using the linky below! Remember to share the love by reading and commenting on a few other posts from the list after you enter your link. The linky will stay open until Monday afternoon.

Pseudo-Vlog: The Fourth Trimester (That Wouldn't End)

So how was your Mother's Day weekend?

Mine was... challenging.

Wearing my big kid in our woven WC ring sling.
He's crying, which is why I turned him away
from the camera. (This photo was taken
in chilly January, but you get the idea.)

It was one of those weekends where Jaymz and I had many moments of looking at each other and remembering (again) that in some ways, our sweet, nearly three-year-old Daniel is still in a much younger stage developmentally.

At some point this weekend—between Daniel's screaming, tears, lack of sleep, various potty issues, and intensive babywearing (preschooler-wearing?) on our parts—I remembered a video I recorded a while back of Jaymz wearing and bouncing Daniel on the ball while we chatted and joked about Daniel's (seemingly endless) fourth trimester. If you're not familiar with the concept of the fourth trimester, this article explains the theory which has been popularized by Dr. Harvey Karp, author of The Happiest Baby on the Block.

Essentially, the fourth trimester is the first three months after birth, when an infant's nervous system isn't yet mature enough to effectively and efficiently soothe himself without help from a caregiver (a co-regulator.) The baby is most comfortable in situations which mimic the environment in utero: being tightly swaddled (or worn in a supportive baby carrier), being rocked or bounced (which mimics the motion of mama walking), hearing the sound of someone else's heart beat, suckling, etc.

Back in November, I captured this video of Daniel requiring fourth-trimester-esque soothing, as has become a routine and expected part of our life. I asked Jaymz why we should record it (because it's such a frequent occurrence for us), and his answer started our conversation:

Friday Favorites: Hammock Time

Welcome to Friday favorites: a weekly linky for your favorite blog posts from the week co-hosted by Maya of Musings of a Marfan Mom and me!

Visit either here at Anktangle or over at Musings of a Marfan Mom every week on Friday to link up your favorite post from the week, and Maya and I will read and comment on them. Don't forget to share the love by reading and commenting on a few of the other favorites in the list after you link up yours!

In addition to the linky, I'm taking this opportunity each week to write a little bit about a my favorite moments from the past week. I hope you'll feel inspired to leave a comment telling me about your favorite thing(s) that happened this week, too!

These are a few of my favorite things:

Last weekend, my dad was in town visiting us for a couple of days. It was very (unseasonably) warm and sunny out, and we ended up being able to make a lot of progress on the vegetable garden. My dad built a trellis for the squash (I'm going to try to get most of my squash to grow vertically this year) and I got almost all of my vegetables in the ground. I still have one 4' x 5' section to finish planting (as well as herbs, flowers, and ground cover to work on in the rest of the yard and around the house) but I was amazed at the volume of work we accomplished in just one weekend.

Thanks again for all your help, Dad!

Along with the extensive gardening, we enjoyed being outside in the sunshine. Daniel ran around the yard in his swimsuit for a while one day, and we all got a good dose of Vitamin D. We filled his kiddie pool up (which we got from our closest neighbors, whose kids are too old for it now) for the first time, which was fun. Daniel stepped in and out of it a few times, but the water was too cold for him to get any good time in. I'm sure we'll have plenty of warm days to try again in the future!

Probably my most favorite part of the weekend was that we hung up our hammock for the first time this year. I just love relaxing in the hammock, enjoying being outside but not necessarily doing anything except observing, taking it all in. I've gotten a few opportunities to utilize the hammock this week, and it's felt so good. In fact, most of this post was written while listening to music and sitting out in the hammock! Daniel is enjoying playing with it, too, which is double fun (and double cuddly).

And one final favorite moment from the week: Daniel was hiding in his cabinet one evening after dinner (I know that might sound strange, but there is a cabinet in our kitchen that Daniel has claimed as his own sort of cave; he loves to hide in it and play games on his phone or listen to music). When it was time to start gearing down for bed, I opened the cabinet door and handed him a chewable melatonin (he gets one an hour before bed every night). Daniel took it, thanked me, and put it in his mouth to chew, but then he stopped for a second and said to me knowingly, "Momma. You should've knocked-ed first."
Good point there, kiddo. Thank you for the reminder!


What was your favorite moment from the week?

Grab the Friday Favorites button to display on your site:

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Link up your favorite blog posts from the week using the linky below! Remember to share the love by reading and commenting on a few other posts from the list after you enter your link. The linky will stay open until Monday at noon.

Friday Favorites: Three Day Weekends

Welcome to Friday favorites: a weekly linky for your favorite blog posts from the week co-hosted by Maya of Musings of a Marfan Mom and yours truly!


Visit either here at Anktangle or over at Musings of a Marfan Mom every week on Friday to link up your favorite post from the week, and Maya and I will read and comment on them. Don't forget to share the love by reading and commenting on a few other posts in the list after you link up yours!

In addition to the linky, I've decided to take this opportunity each week to write a little bit about a my favorite moments from the past week. I hope you'll feel inspired to leave a comment telling me about your favorite thing(s) that happened this week, too!

These are a few of my favorite things:

Jaymz has taken a few Mondays off recently, which has given our family a few three day weekends in a row! It's been amazing to me to experience how much more restful and productive our weekends feel with that extra day at the end. Plus, then our work weeks start on Tuesday, which helps them to move along at a quicker pace (and helps us all to avoid getting a case of the Mondays). My favorite things during our long weekends recently were: working in the garden together, cooking and eating meals together, and seeing the house start to get cleaner and more organized little by little.

Flowering rosemary in Arwyn's yard

It's been so warm here the past couple of days. I've really been enjoying the sunshine! It's often cloudy in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, and these summery rays we've had lately feel good to the soul. I know the new little plants in the garden are soaking it all in, too!

I spent a blissful morning this week wandering idly around Portland Nursery: breathing in the smell of all the plants, reading about different varieties of houseplants, vegetables, and flowers, and then carefully choosing a few of them to take home with me. My visit to the nursery was a welcome break from our usual (faster) pace of life. It felt like an extended version of my garden meditation, and I think I really needed it.

What was your favorite moment from the week?

Grab the Friday Favorites button to display on your site:

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Link up your favorite blog posts from the week using the linky below! Remember to share the love by reading and commenting on a few other posts from the list after you enter your link. The linky will stay open until Monday at noon.

Tips for Moving with a Toddler (or Sensory Kid)

It's been just over a year since we moved into this, our first owned home. I wrote this post shortly after moving, and then didn't ever publish it. It was fun to look back at the photos of us a year ago and see how much we've grown and changed.

With spring and Moving Season solidly upon us, I'm sharing these tips and suggestions now in the hopes that they'll help someone out there with navigating a moving transition with their kiddo. If you have additional insights to share about how you eased through a big transition with a kid in tow, I'd love it if you'd share your wisdom in the comments below! 

A little over a year ago, our family moved into a new home. It was an in-town move, less than a mile between the two residences. Regardless of where or how far you're going, moving with a kid (or more than one!) can be very disruptive and challenging, too.

There were lots of things to do to prepare for the move: packing, cleaning, organizing...but the biggest challenge for us was helping Daniel through the transition. I had a request from a fellow mama moving with a toddler to write about our experiences with moving and what we did to help prepare Daniel for the change.

I feel compelled to add a disclaimer up front: I have to admit that managing Daniel's sensory challenges colors my experience of motherhood so much at this point that I sometimes have difficulty knowing which things are typical toddler behaviors and which things are specific to kids with SPD. In a lot of ways, I've gotten so used to the ways Daniel processes and reacts to things that when I'm around neurotypical children, I'm surprised at how they act and I don't know how best to relate to them (simply because that is not my experience of parenting). As I was writing this post, it was hard for me to separate out the sensory interventions from those which would be more universal, but I think the list I've come up with is relatively adaptable to all kinds of kiddos. If your little one is more high needs or sensitive, these tips may just apply to you that much more.

• Talk about moving—a lot. I think this might be the most important thing anyone can do to prepare their child for any of life's many transitions: simply to be open to the conversation, and to have it often.
  
  

#OneWord365: On the Harmony of Growth & Contentment

Well, this GROW year has gotten away from me, and my plan of writing a grow post each month this year got a bit sidetracked by other things.

Still, I was reminded recently that perhaps the most important step toward achieving any goal is the all-important act of simply showing up. So here I am again, showing up (albeit, a little late) with reflections on growth from the first quarter of this year.

There's no image that embodies contentment
quite so much as a happy cat

There has been a recurring theme so far in my year of grow, and it seems only right to explore it a bit here in my first update on this year's word.

The concept that has been coming up over and over in different contexts for me is the idea that in order to be open to growth or change, one must first be dissatisfied—or downright unhappy—with her current state of being.

I have a lot of trouble with this idea. It implies that in order to want to change, I must first be unhappy; I must first not like who I am today. In order to desire growth, progress, and, ultimately, an outcome different than my current state, I can't be content with how things are right now, in this moment. I've tried to simply reject this concept outright, but it keeps popping up and invading my hard earned sense of contentment with the state of my life and (perhaps more importantly) myself.

So I've been thinking a lot about how one can continue on a path of growth and change while simultaneously being completely content with each day, each moment, each state of being along that journey. To desire positive movement in some direction, while simultaneously feeling happy with the place you're in right now.

The answer I've come up with for me is about framing: rather than pinpointing a particular goal or achievement (an outcome or destination), I've got to think about growth and change as a journey, a daily choice, and (if I'm going to be really honest with myself) a never-ending process. If I can truly enjoy all the steps along the way, it becomes less about trying to be or do something else, and more about choosing each day to focus on things that are important to me, and that make me feel good.

None of us really knows exactly where we're going, anyway, right? I say you might as well choose the path that most appeals to you for the long and exciting journey ahead. And know that where you are right now has the potential to be just as valuable, enjoyable, and desirable as where you're headed.